What About Now?
by SAMUS'S-Y-HAT
Summary: After doctoring Roy Mustang back to health, Riza talks to him about her thoughts surrounding the event. Rated K for Mild Language and some Violent Content.


WHAT ABOUT NOW?

I never remembered much of those few days after the accident. I only remembered how he had bandages wrapped around his face and how the bandages around his stab wounds bled through every few hours. What I remember most is when he woke up, and in a few weeks the bandages were gone and he only had a patch over his face. I told him I felt responsible and he blew it off. He didn't' want me to feel like that, and because he didn't blame me for not getting there in time. For not keeping him from getting shot.

The years passes. Two, to be exact, and I've gone from only nursing him back to being healthy to being.... Closer, if you will. He still had the patch and I wonder if he's noticed 'us'.

"Riza?" He said, sitting with me on the hill in the cemetery outside of Central.

"Yes?" I asked from the opposite side of the tree we sat against. Hayate looked up at the sound of my voice.

"Do you ever think the military will let me back?"

I thought for a minute. "I highly doubt it, sir."

"Why do you still call me 'sir', then?" He moved closer to me.

I laughed.

"I guess it's a force of habit, Roy."

"That's better."

"Why do you want to go back, anyway?" I was almost afraid of the answer.

"Well, I hope that I can still become Fuehrer! And see you and all the female operatives in tiny mini-skirts!"

"I'm sure you'd love to see that nurse in a mini-skirt." I sighed bitterly.

"Ha! No... I think you would look better in one."

My heart stopped.

"Well, I refuse to wear one."

He looked at me.

"Oh? But what if I officially declare it?"

"I'll quit the military." I said, standing my ground.

"You did that last month because I said I wasn't going to be in it anymore." He was edging closer to me.

"Oh.... Well..... I smiled. "You know I'd never wear one."

"Well, then. When you say 'no', you mean it. Like your father."

I turned abruptly to face him. He didn't realize he was so close. He blinked as strands of my hair whipped his face. His eyes opened, or at least the one I could see did. He watched me, his eye wide and dark. Playful and wanting, like just a few years ago. He was looking at me with a very familiar expression.

"You knew my father... better than me." I said.

He blinked. "Yes. I suppose."

"I only talked to him when I was younger. The closer I was to military age, the less I even bothered to communicate with him. I never talked, not even when he was telling me the secrets of flame alchemy. So I'm wondering.... Now that he's gone... What was he-?"

"Like?" Roy smiled. He had been searching for a moment to sound clever.

I laughed. "Yes."

"Well, you act exactly like him. Ornery, mean, blunt, intelligent, stubborn, and... Caring." He frowned a little.

"Caring? I was never under the impression that I or my father was caring."

He looked confused. "Hayate?" My dog looked up. "He Elrics? Me? You don't call that caring?"

"I suppose. But what do you mean, you?" I was still denying my own feelings.

"When I was shot. You thought I was dead. I could hear you, but I couldn't respond. I heard you call my name and through the pain I could feel you crying on me. I made myself wake up, so you wouldn't' hurt. What would you call your actions? I think you care. But... If you don't, then I've been wrong all this time."

I felt hurt. I felt like I did all the days he hadn't woken up. I caressed his patch; his visible eye was searching my own.

"You're right. I've been trying to reject it... But I care. You're right."

He took my hand from his face. "There's something wrong with you."

"What?! What do you mean?"

"You told me I'm right instead of calling me an idiot." He smiled.

"Shut up, Roy." I laughed.

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"General!" I called, dropping my gun, running towards the lifeless lump that could only be him. "General!! DAMN IT, ROY MUSTANG, TALK TO ME!!!"

I kneeled next to the General. I shook his body a little, but no motion came. I was frozen for a second then collapsed at his side. I could feel the blood still seeping through his jacket. I thought that me crying could wake him up or bring him back, but it wouldn't. I turned him on his back and wiped my face. He had severe wounds and bullet holes through his hip and his face.... half of it was normal and the other was bloody and morbid, from his eye down. I tore open his shirt and felt for his pulse.

"Roy! Roy, please! Come back to me!" My hands searched his chest and found a faint beating over a large stab wound that seemed to be from the blade that penetrated deep and was directed at his heart.

"Roy! I know you're there. Please don't leave me." I pleaded, starting to cry again.

And then I heard him, faintly. "......the.......boy....."

I glanced over to where the boy was laying. I moved over to him and turned him on his back, too. His eyes stared up. He was the Fuehrer's son. There was no way he was alive. I moved back to Roy. He was watching me with one eye, his breath staggered.

"He's gone, Roy. We need to get you to a hospital." I slipped my hands under his back to lift him up, or at least try.

"Riza..... It hurts...." He passed out again.

"I know, Roy. I know."

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"Do you blame me?" I had come back to reality.

He sighed.

"I told you this a long time ago. I don't blame you. You were in a fire fight, and that couldn't be helped. I told you that nothing in the world is perfect, and that's what makes it beautiful." He wrapped his fingers around a strand of my hair. "And then I touched your hair and you shoved apple in my mouth." He smiled.

"You were too weak to kiss." I laughed.

"I'd never be too weak to kiss you." He was so close; his hair was blowing against my forehead.

"What about now?" I whispered. "There's no one left to fight."

Without warning, he gently pressed his lips to mine. I closed my eyes, wanting it to last forever. Eventually, he broke away, needing air.

"I... love you." I blurted out.

He smiled. "I love you, too. I've been waiting a long time to hear you say that."

"I wanted to tell you after Hughes died. But you were so bent on revenge, I-"

"I know." There was a long silence. "You know, if Hughes were here, he would be making comments this whole time."

"He would be telling us to hurry up, get married, and have children." My face turned red.

"Heh. Yeah." He leaned over and kissed me again. "I won't leave again." He said.

"I hope so." I closed my eyes and remembered every day he had been gone after the accident.

"It's cold, Riza. And it's getting dark." Roy stood up and held out his hand to me. "I'm going back."

I took his hand and he pulled me up abruptly. "Hayate, come." The dog scampered to my side.

"So what about now, Riza?" Roy asked, still holding my hand.

"What do you mean? It's the right ending. No enemies."

"No war." He added.

"Just us."

"Just us, forever."


End file.
